5 Best Practices for Achieving Your Goals

Do you set your goals, only to lose track of them every time? What if you could tap into some strategies to help you actually achieve the goals you set? Below is a list of 5 ideas that will help you do just that!

(This Tip is an excerpt from my brand new eBook, Achieve Your Goals: 10 Best Practices for Getting From Here to There! If you find this list helpful, download the 2016 Goal-Setting Kit and when you unzip it, you’ll find the new eBook!)

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

5 Best Practices for Achieving Your Goals

By Andrea Novakowski

You’ve done the work required to create great goals for yourself. You’ve considered the big picture, identified the right goals for you, and sketched them out.

But, it doesn’t stop there! This is only the beginning.

Your next steps are to put your plans in action, start moving in the right direction, and make your way toward achieving these great goals.

Here are 5 things you can do that will greatly improve your ability to achieve your goals.

1. Visualize your goal. Create a picture that you can look at regularly. When you keep your goal front of mind, it makes it more real and therefore doable. For a step-by-step process for creating a visual depiction of your goal, click here.

2. Identify an accountability partner. Formalize the help you get by identifying someone with whom you can connect and get support. Schedule regular check-ins to review your progress and the continued viability of your goals. This can be especially useful when your business or the economy shifts (or life happens). Working with someone else to periodically assess whether the goals you set are still right can help you recommit to your plan in mid-stride and keep you moving in the right direction.

3. Make your goals a priority. If you want to achieve your goals, you have to make time for them. And not just any time; give them the right time. Work on them the first thing every day before you have time to procrastinate. Or schedule them for the time of day when you know your energy and focus is at its best. Plan your day to make sure the important things get done.

4. Make your goals specific and measurable. The clearer your goal is, the easier it will be to accomplish. Use benchmarks to track your progress. Seeing how far you’ve come can help you keep moving forward.

5. Approach your goal in reachable increments. Do this by creating a plan for your goal that is broken down into small steps. By taking one small step, you build a connection from nothing to something. The small step can get your energy going, start the momentum, and help reduce the overwhelming pressure of a big goal! Completing one small step makes it easier to do the next and the next and the next. Before you know it, the goal is accomplished.

The process of goal setting is much like that of learning mathematics or climbing a mountain.

At first, the perception of the task is overwhelming. It seems too big, too daunting, to accomplish. However, when you reconsider the goal as a process, a series of small tasks that are eminently doable, then the goal’s attainment is always possible.

The completion of each small task will build a sense of accomplishment and confidence, which will encourage you toward success.

YOUR CALL TO ACTION

You can achieve your goals! It’s just a matter of focus and process. To help you do this, choose one or two processes from the list above that fit you best and get started!

If you found this list helpful, there’s more! Download the 2016 Goal-Setting Kit and when you unzip it, you’ll find the brand new eBook, Achieve Your Goals: 10 Best Practices for Getting From Here to There!